Pieces of a Puzzle
by Lalaith Quetzalli
Summary: Tony Stark claimed to be volatile, self-obsessed and not play well with others... what no one knew was that he'd been working with others for years... since a certain life-changing event in Afghanistan. Two men who were his brothers in every way that mattered... even if they didn't exist as far as most of the world was concerned. (Begins after Sherlock's exile) HLV Fix-It
1. Part 1

I don't own Sherlock, or the MCU... yada, yada.

I warned you last time that for the next piece (this one) you would actually need some knowledge of the fandom I'm making the crossover with. I'm sorry, but that's just how things came out. This fic wasn't even in the works when I first began the John's Vow project, but I couldn't help but think that Sherlock and Tony would either get along wonderfully or kill each other in the first five minutes... I tried but nothing fit in the other pieces and then I asked myself, what would be the perfect moment for those three (and all three, in the end) to have met... it just snowballed from there.

IMPORTANT: You need to know at least the basics of Iron Man 1 & 2 and the first Avengers movie. It helps if you have actually watched it, at least that one; because while I mention quite a few things from the Iron Man movies, I actually go into the Avengers one, an important part of it. There is a reason I actually posted this piece in the crossovers section...

The Avengers script came from the web (the IMDb page, or one like that).

Have no Beta, am not British, any typos, mistakes, etc. are my own, apologies in advance.

* * *

 **Pieces of a Puzzle** (Part 1)

" _How would you describe me John, resourceful, dynamic, enigmatic?" SH_

" _Late?" JW_

It was late in the evening (or night, depending on the time-zone, almost everyone aboard had lost count of how many of those they'd passed already). A group had been brought together on a round table on the bridge of SHIELD's helicarrier to discuss the current situation, as well as the new prisoner: Loki of Asgard. A man more than a thousand years old, who'd been given the title of God of Mischief and Lies in ancient times... and who threatened the Earth with an alien invasion and plans for making himself King.

The individuals gathered in that moment were: Steve Rogers, Captain America, blonde, blue-eyed, extremely muscled man who looked to be in his twenties. He'd been the first superhero and a great leader during WWII, until being lost in the Arctic shortly before the end of the War. He'd been found, somehow alive (most believed the serum that turned him into a super-soldier to be responsible). He had been thawed and SHIELD had attempted to help him adapt to the new time (though they hadn't been too successful on the last thus far).

There was also Natasha Romanoff (formerly Natalia Alianovna Romanova), with green eyes and wavy red hair, Russian by birth, trained by an organization known as the Red-Room to be a spy an assassin, the Black Widow. She'd escaped eventually and gone down the route of a freelance mercenary before being found by SHIELD and convinced to join (that one was a long story).

Bruce Banner, Dr. in Biochemistry, expert in Nuclear Physics and Gamma Radiation. He'd been involved in an attempt to re-create Captain America's serum (there were actually several versions of that event), which had ended with him developing a rage-induced alter ego of a huge green creature that followed the most basic instincts and called itself Hulk (though Banner himself always referred to it just as 'the Other Guy').

Thor, son of Odin, the blonde, blue-eyed, God of Thunder and crown prince of Asgard had arrived to Earth (or as he called it, Midgard) intent on recovering both the Cube (the Tesseract) and his brother Loki. He'd been among humans once, the year before, being partly responsible for a mess that had taken place in New Mexico (Loki had been involved then too).

The final two people at the table were two civilians: William and Johnathan Scott, called simply Liam and John by most. They were both brunettes with gray eyes (though Liam's hair was a shade or two darker, and his eyes looked blue-green under a certain light); Liam was also several inches taller, while John's built was stockier, more muscled. They both wore dark trousers and button-up shirts, though Liam chose to finish his ensemble with a long dark coat, while John favored sweaters more. They were also married. While civilians, the two were good friends of Tony Stark (the millionaire, owner of Stark Industries, and Iron Man). John was a well-trained former military man, while Liam was a science-genius; both helped Stark in their own ways.

And so they all either stood or sat around a state of the art holo-table, watching the feed from the camera located in the 'temporary prison' where Loki was being place, witnessing Nick Fury's (Director of SHIELD) exchange with the criminal.

"In case it's unclear." Fury was telling Loki. "You try to escape. You so much as scratch that glass..." He pressed a button which opened up a watch underneath the cell, giving a quite graphic demonstration of the consequences. "Thirty thousand feet, straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?!" He closed the hatch, pointing at Loki dramatically. "Ant." Then at the button. "Boot."

More than one of the people at the bridge rolled their eyes at that.

"It's an impressive cage." The prisoner stated, completely relaxed. "Not built, I think, for me."

"Built for something a lot stronger than you." Fury retorted.

"Oh, I've heard." Loki sounded almost eager as he kept talking, turning eyes to the camera he knew was transmitting. "The mindless beast, makes play he's still a man." He turned back to Fury. "How desperate are you, that you call upon such lost creatures to defend you?"

A few turned what they probably believed were discreet looks at the standing Dr. Banner; not the Scotts though, they sat completely calm, quietly talking among themselves every-so-often.

"How desperate am I?" The Director hissed testily. "You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace and you kill 'cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

"Ooh. It burns you to come so close." Loki almost chuckled, dark and cold. "To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share, and then to be reminded what real power is."

"Knowledge is power." Liam snorted, turning to face his partner. "I really cannot believe he's so blind. He's supposed to be an intelligent man... or does anyone become leader of SHIELD nowadays? And if so I'll be so disappointed..."

"Liam." The sound of his name, from John's lips, was enough to settle the taller man.

That didn't change the fact that everyone was looking at them.

"What? Do I have something on my face?" Liam asked the group with a perfectly blank face.

"What do you mean, about Director Fury being blind?" Captain Rogers asked eventually.

It had looked briefly like Romanoff might say something, but in the end she didn't.

"I mean that Loki obviously knows things." Liam stated in a half-condescending tone. "Like I said, knowledge is power. And I don't mean the knowledge of how you take your coffee, your favorite movie, or anything that stupid. No, I'm talking about real knowledge, real power; the kind of things Fury doesn't like to share... Loki knows them already, is using them against your Director... he will probably end up using them against everyone else sooner or later. And since, of course, it's the kind of knowledge you don't want to share, none of you will see it coming."

"You cannot possibly know that." Romanoff blurted out.

"Why, because you didn't?" Liam said in a biting tone. "Remember what happened the last time you thought you knew everything Agent? You failed. So spectacularly you didn't even know you had failed until it was all over."

It looked like Romanoff just might try to hit him, but someone else went to diffuse the situation.

"Liam, that's enough." John said, quietly but strongly.

Everyone else watched the exchange in silence, it was obvious something had happened in the past between those two, possibly between all three of them. Still, they had work to do and it wasn't the time.

"Loki's gonna drag this out." Steve spoke up, in an attempt to steer them all back to the main topic of conversation. "So, Thor, what's his play?"

"He has an army called the Chitauri." Thor declared. "They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."

"An army? From outer space?" Rogers asked in disbelief.

"So he's building another portal." Banner realized. "That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."

"Selvig?" Thor interrupted.

"He's an astrophysicist." Banner explained.

"He's a friend." Thor revealed quietly, obviously affected by the revelation.

"Loki has him under some kind of spell," Romanoff said. "along with one of ours."

Even Liam didn't say anything cutting to that. Neither of the Scotts might have known Clint Barton, but had heard from him, mainly from Phil Coulson, who was Tony Stark's contact with SHIELD. They believed he was a good man... or in any case a man that deserved better than being one of Loki's puppets.

"I wanna know why Loki let us take him." Steve insisted. "He's not leading an army from here."

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki." Banner opposed. "That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell crazy on him."

"Have care how you speak." Thor said authoritatively. "Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother."

"He killed eighty people in two days." Natasha pointed out.

"He's adopted." Thor excused.

"Idiots, absolute idiots the lot of them." Liam practically snarled. "And if anyone were to care for my opinion. The Captain is right. Apparent craziness or anything else is irrelevant, if Loki is supposed to lead this invasion, there's a reason. We should focus on him."

"Why should we even listen to you?" Romanoff challenged. "Who do you think you are? What gives you the right to be here at all?"

"Oh... I'm no one at all, no one." Liam said in a deadpan tone. "Just the busboy who brought all of Tony's toys in. And a genius, lets not forget that part. I am telling you right now that you're going about things the wrong way, and unless you stop... well, we might be lucky if we live to regret it!"

It really pissed him off, the mere thought that despite having survived everything he had thus far (and there was a lot he'd survived, and it hadn't been easy) he might die because some people couldn't see what was so obviously right before them... of course, few things that might be obvious to him were so for anyone else.

"Liam, my brother from another mother!" Tony Stark, brunette and dark eyed genius, as well as Iron Man, called brightly as he practically waltzed into the bridge like he owned it. "Are you already breaking your toys? Playtime hasn't even begun yet!"

"You know how little patience I have when it comes to dealing with idiots, Tony." Liam said.

"Brother?" Rogers interfered. "No one said anything about Howard having another son."

"They're not actually brothers." Phil Coulson, brunette and blue-gray eyed, walking in right behind Tony, stated. "Could trick anyone into believing it if they wanted, though. Particularly since both Tony and William are geniuses in anything they can get their hands on, quite capable of doing the craziest experiments..."

"And explosions." John intervened in a half-suffering. "Don't forget the explosions."

"Can we get back to the matter at hand?" Maria Hill, black haired, dark-eyed woman, the second in command of SHIELD, demanded as she approached the group.

"Much as I hate to say this bro, because I've no doubt you're right, neither of us here are trained profilers or psychologists, so, for the time being, we might as well focus on our strengths." Tony said, shrugging helplessly at Liam.

Much as he hated to, the younger man had to admit Tony was right.

"Iridium, what did they need the Iridium for?" Banner decided to get things back on track then.

"It's a stabilizing agent." Liam muttered under his breath, though everyone heard him.

"Right." Tony agreed. "Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD."

"Another stupidity." Liam practically moaned to himself, only to be shushed by John.

"It also means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants." Tony went on before going to stand before the standing screens Fury used most of the time, he looked at one side and the other a few times, and then: "How does Fury do this?"

"He turns." Hill deadpanned.

"Well, that sounds exhausting." Stark shrugged,

He hid in his play-acting and over-dramatized motions the moment he placed a hacking button-device on the side of one of the screens, only his two best-friends noticed.

"The rest of the raw materials can be acquired easily." Liam went on, getting more into the swing of things. "Even a man limited by something like having to follow another's will should be able to get them easily."

"True." Tony nodded. "Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube."

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Rogers asked, interested.

"He's got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." Dr. Banner offered.

"Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect." Tony pointed out.

"Which would allow him to achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet." Liam finished in a somewhat bored tone.

The most surprising part was hearing the same thing echoed (mostly) by Dr. Banner. For some people the scene was the revelation of the way Tony Stark and William Scott operated, with the two making leaps on the knowledge train that would be impossible for anyone else; Johnathan just watching and smiling at the exchange; only interfering when he believed one or both of them were taking something too far.

Tony for his part, focused completely on Bruce.

"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner." He stated, offering his hand to the other man. "Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."

Liam snorted from his place and John could only roll his eyes fondly; everyone else though, stared at Tony as though he was crazy (hard to know for sure if they were right).

"Thanks." Banner stated, though he sounded unsure.

"Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube." Nick Fury stated, finally joining them. "I was hoping you might join him."

"You should start with that stick of his." Rogers suggested. "It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."

"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube." Fury said. "And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

"Monkeys? I do not understand." Thor muttered, confused.

"I do!" Steve cried out, excited. "I understood that reference."

Liam didn't understand either, but John was the only one who noticed, and chose not to say anything about it, just promising quietly to his partner to explain the reference later.

"Shall we play, doctor?" Tony invited Banner.

"Let's play." Banner agreed.

"Come on Liam." Tony called even as he walked away. "Don't be a sour-puss and join the party. John, bring your hubby, come on!"

"Hubby?!" Steve blurted out, shocked.

Liam looked like he might have a sharp response to that, but John stopped him, signaling to get moving, while he answered.

"I believe we haven't been properly introduced, captain." The short man (he was even shorter than Tony) stated in a pleasant tone. "We, of course, are aware who you all are, I hope you don't mind but we took a look at the files Agent Coulson left with Tony last night. As for us. I am Johnathan Scott, the man who just left is William Scott. We've been Tony's business partners and close friends for a few years now." He made a pause before adding. "It's how we all met Miss Romanoff. She tried to go undercover as Pepper, Pepper Potts, SI's CEO, PA; but Liam knew what she was from the first day..." Which explained the animosity there. "What else? Ah, right. Liam and I are married, have been for almost as long as we've known Tony, though we've been together for much longer than that... sometimes it seems like we've been together our whole lives... So, that's that. Excuse me."

No one had a response to that, whether they'd known about the couple before or not, there simply didn't seem to be any words for it. Not from the most open-minded, or even from the man who came from a time when men being together was illegal.

John didn't say anything else, he just turned around and went to join his husband, second best friend (for Liam would always be his first) and Dr. Banner in the labs. He might not be a genius like the other three, but he knew he would be able to help somehow, he always did.

 **xXx**

 _John was focused on carefully putting away every piece of medical equipment that had just been used, making sure to dispose of any syringes and such in a safe manner._

" _So, what's the what Doc?" Tony asked, rolling down the sleeves of his shirt._

" _The palladium poisoning seems to have left your blood almost completely." John declared, all seriousness. "Regretfully some of it will stay with you. You let this go on too long, and not all damage can be undone..."_

" _I know, I know..." Tony interrupted with an almost dismissive tone. "You told me from the very start John. And I told you back then there was nothing we could do about it. And you did all you could to give me time and so I wouldn't be in pain..."_

" _I still wish I could have done more." John admitted. "Seeing you getting progressively worse, the drugs working less and less..."_

" _Stop being so depressing already!" Liam snapped as he approached._

 _Dummy was behind him, carefully balancing a tray with several cups and, a tea kettle and saucers with milk and sugar (he was quite proud when he managed to place the tray on the table without doing more than spilling a few drops of milk)._

" _Tea? Really?" Tony asked, furrowing his brow. "Where's the booze? We're supposed to be celebrating guys!"_

" _We are celebrating." Liam stated, as he served each cup. "This is true tea, British tea, not the poor excuse for it you Americans drink. I had JARVIS order it a while ago."_

" _And you know you can't drink alcohol for a little while Tony, not while you are taking that medication to cleanse your blood as much as possible from the palladium." John reminded him._

 _Tony didn't complain. He knew he'd made enough of a mess on his birthday. After so long keeping to water and juices disguised as cocktails, that night he hadn't only drank, he'd drank a lot. It'd just been so much, the realization that regardless of how hard his two friends tried, he was still dying; and that, added to the stress of having a spy in his own home, Pepper pulling away, hurt, not really understanding what was going on, and Rhodey's betrayal..._

" _Will you ever forgive him?" Liam asked quietly._

 _Tony didn't even bother asking if he'd read his mind, he did it too often._

" _I think I will have to." Tony admitted quietly. "In any case, I will need to re-appropriate that suit at some point, if only to take away everything Hammer put in and substitute it with SI stuff. As upset as I might be right now I won't let Rhodey get killed for trusting Hammer's faulty tech..." He let out a breath. "You know, it's not the fact that he took the suit that angers me."_

" _I know." Liam nodded. "If you didn't intend it to happen, he'd have never been able to use it."_

" _Exactly!" Tony cried out, finally letting out what he felt about it. "I refitted the Mark II so Rhodey would be able to use it, and he doesn't see that. He doesn't realize that none of my other suits would have ever worked for him, they don't even fit him, we're not the same size!"_

 _He was right of course, but Rhodey had been so busy with his righteous anger, he hadn't noticed any of it. Just like he hadn't noticed when Tony had first approached him, intending to talk to him about the suit, shortly after Afghanistan, after ending the weapons' production. James Rhodes never noticed those things, all the ways he kept hurting Tony, little by little. Tony had wanted his old friend to be a part of his legacy, and the Colonel turned every chance down without even realizing it... In the end he'd still be, he had the suit, he was War Machine. But he'd never reach the heights he would have, were he truly working side by side with Tony, as was originally intended. And no one but Tony, John and Liam would know._

" _What about Ms. Romanova?" John asked quietly._

 _He knew the woman who'd gone by the name Natalie Rushman was a sore point for Tony. The way she'd gained Pepper's trust, only to be able to use it against Tony later. The way she'd made Happy feel insecure, that a secretary might be able to defeat him. Tony might have been a tad distracted at the time, with the palladium and everything. But Liam and John had still been there, between the two of them they'd managed to catch the woman in her game before anyone got hurt. They'd chosen not to reveal anything, instead have the spy hang herself with her own rope. And the moment had come when Fury confronted Tony after his drunk binge on the disaster that became his birthday party, and Natasha Romanoff (once again as her true self) tried to get to Tony from behind and inject him with an experimental drug. Only to find herself stopped, and quite viciously too, by John._

 _Bottom-line, Romanoff had been so convinced of her own abilities she never considered the fact that she might have been found out. The possibility that everything Tony did in her sight might be an act (except for that party, that truly was a mess). Just like SHIELD never considered that Tony might actually be under a treatment of sorts to delay the effects of the palladium and if they'd gotten away with injecting that drug into Tony they might have end up killing him!_

" _I don't trust her." Tony murmured after what seemed like forever. "I don't know that I ever will. Then again, as long as my status with SHIELD remains that of a Consultant, I don't see why I'd need to see her ever again."_

 _They all knew it wouldn't be pretty if he did. The one thing neither men had considered when making their plans about Natasha Romanoff, was how hurt Pepper would be. Hos much trust he'd put on her 'PA' and the results of having that trust betrayed... it was nothing as bad as what Tony had gone through with Obadiah, thankfully, but still bad enough. And that was the part neither of them (because Tony might be Pepper's boyfriend, but both Liam and John saw her a bit like a sister and cared deeply for her as such) would ever forgive the spy for._

" _I don't know if I'll ever fully trust SHIELD after this." Tony admitted, in a vulnerable tone he only had when talking with the two of them, or Pepper._

" _An intelligence Agency that is against its own people sharing in the intelligence... while sad it's not exactly a new thing." John pointed out with a slight shrug._

" _Still, historically not good either." Liam added._

 _Everyone agreed, though that did not help them decide how they were going to deal with things._

" _Changing topic." Tony called suddenly. "As you know, we're almost finished with Stark Tower... if all goes well it will be ready tomorrow and... well..."_

" _You would like us to disappear so you and Pepper can celebrate." John finished for him._

" _Something like that, yes." Tony admitted with a sincere, growing smile, before adding. "I'm thinking of asking her to marry me."_

 _There was no response to that, nor any need for one either, Tony knew his friends would always be happy for him and Pepper both._

 **xXx**

It had been an absolute mess... though mess probably wasn't a strong enough word for it all. The arguments in the lab, with Dr. Banner so unsure of himself, Rogers in all his self-righteous glory wanting to lead men with no interest in being lead, Tony reacting defensively at the fact that he was in a SHIELD installation, surrounded by so many people he didn't trust, especially the 'legend' his own father had chosen above his own flesh and blood. John and Liam could only watch in silence, not knowing what to do. At some point Liam tried to warn them all about the mistakes they'd made during Loki's interrogation, regarding their conclusions about the Hulk, how they were twisting facts to suit theories rather than the other way around... no one listened to a single word he said.

And then disaster struck. In the end Loki did what SHIELD had expected, used Hulk against them. Liam wondered if that meant he'd been wrong, John thought it was possible that he'd done it because they'd suggested it first... or maybe it was simply rotten timing. In any case, none of that changed what had happened.

Liam had followed Tony and Rogers to fix the engine that had been affected by the explosion used as both a distraction and an in by the mercs attacking the helicarrier. While Rogers might be able to fight, he wouldn't be much help for Tony with the actual repairing; and while engineering wasn't really Liam's specially, he knew enough.

John for his part had pulled out his own gun and followed other SHIELD Agents, helping them to systematically take down the mercenaries, one by one. No one commented on his meddling, but after seeing his aim simply made a spot for him in the formation and went on. The short man didn't stay with them for long, eventually slipping away to go to the 'prison-area' instead (all three of them had the blueprints of the helicarrier memorized, though SHIELD had changed a few details, Tony had designed them). He arrived just in time to see Coulson bleeding out and about to lose consciousness.

"Just stay awake." Fury was saying, voice going higher as he lost his composure. "Eyes On Me!"

"No, I'm clocked out here..." Phil half-groaned.

Fury was probably going to say something, express his denial in some way; but John was moving and talking before he was fully conscious of it.

"Not an option." He announced as he dropped on his knees beside the two men.

His hands worked without need for his mind to really give any orders. The moves well-practiced, more instinct than knowledge. Soon he'd taken off Phil's jacket, placed it behind his head as a pillow of sorts, the shirt was taken off too, used to put pressure on Phil's back; while that was the entrance wound, and usually John would have chosen to focus on that first; he knew in that moment the priority was to make sure he continued breathing, keep his heart beating, which meant focusing on his front.

It was quite helpful when the paramedics arrived, if only because they could get an IV working, as well as help him with CPR and the like.

"Boss... the Avengers... can still work..." Phil stuttered in Fury's direction. "They just... they... need... a reason..."

Phil's lost consciousness about then, but John didn't lose his cool. Just kept working, giving orders to the paramedics as needed, all who followed them easily enough.

"Move away Scott." Fury ordered eventually.

"I won't sir." John retorted calmly.

"Let my men do their work." The Director insisted.

"With all due respect to them." And certainly not to Fury. "Your men are paramedics, I am a doctor. I know what I'm doing..."

"All the same, I don't know you, therefore I don't trust you..."

"I couldn't care less sir. I do not work for you, I only care about saving Phil's life."

"How do you even know it can be done?"

"The mere fact that you don't think it can, tells me you're the wrong kind of person to leave this kind of job to. For all I know you would give up in two minutes and then open a line to the Avengers and tell them something like 'Agent Coulson is down' or some other shit."

John didn't know he'd hit the nail right in the head, he just knew there was something telling in Fury's eyes, something that made him decide to make something else obvious.

"Liam, I'm in the prison area." He spoke up, cocking his head sideways just enough to call attention to the well-hidden comm in his ear. "Let the others know that Loki escaped, we apparently lost Thor at some point, though I'm unclear on the details on that one. Oh, and Agent Coulson is badly injured, though he'll live."

"You shouldn't be giving any guarantees to my people." Fury practically snarled at him. "You have no idea. And I gave no permission."

"Again, I don't work for you." John interrupted the Director's rant. "And I do know, it's not the first time I've dealt with an injury like this..." He let out a breath. "Also, as intimidating as your men might find you, Director Coulson, I'm not afraid of you. I know you don't like me, never have. If you could truly do something to get rid of me, of both me and Liam, you would have done it years ago. Since you haven't... well..." He shrugged. "In any case, complaining about what I've already done is kinda pointless, don't you think?"

Fury had nothing else to say. So, after making sure the paramedics had the situation well under control, and that they knew better than to try and fake Coulson's 'death' when he was gone, John eventually made his own way back to the bridge. Fury hadn't waited for him, obviously, he probably even hoped John would choose to stay with Phil, give him one less troublesome person to deal with... John wasn't that accommodating. He arrived to the bridge right on time to listen to what seemed like the second half of a very long speech:

"Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract." It was the Director talking. "I never put all my chips on that number though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Stark knows this, called 'The Avengers Initiative'. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could." He let out a breath. "Phil Coulson believed in that idea, in heroes..."

"Shouldn't you be saying he believes in that idea, Director?" John called scathingly. "After all, it's not like Agent Coulson is dead."

Everyone turned to look at him (all but Fury, who just rolled his eyes and looked away). Liam was out of his seat in a second, taking hold of his partner's arms and looking down at him, at his blood-stained sweater.

"I'm fine." John assured him quietly. "It's not mine. Phil was bleeding badly..."

"Is he truly alright?" Rogers asked.

And the fact that the man was asking him, when the Director standing right then, showed how badly things were going, as well as what direction the distrust went.

"Unconscious." The doctor admitted. "In an involuntary comma, pretty much. To be perfectly honest with you, his condition is volatile, but stable. If we get him to a good hospital in the next few hours and have specialists on his case I'm convinced he'll be just fine with some time. The worst part was all the blood he lost. It's pretty much why he's in a comma right now. One of his lungs was badly pierced, but thankfully did not collapse. He also has a few bruised ribs. On the other hand his heart is alright and his spine wasn't touched, which is quite good. The brunt of the damage was elsewhere in..." he broke off for a moment. "In the vena cava."

No one, not even Fury and Hill (who'd just joined them) missed the way John's fists tightened at those words, at the same time Liam flinched visibly, a hand reaching for his own chest. None of them needed to be geniuses to suspect the Scotts had previous experience with such injuries, though there was no way of knowing how...

"What's new around here?" John asked in turn.

"Agent Barton is back." Liam informed him. "Romanoff made sure to get him out of whatever magic Loki had been using."

"How?" John was honestly curious at that.

"Cognitive Re-calibration..." Tony answered from the table with a wide grin, before clarifying. "Which means she hit him very hard in the head."

John snorted but did not comment about Romanoff's methods. It wasn't the time to get into that.

"I told them about Coulson." Liam added. "Romanoff said to thank you and that she would be by to see him as soon as she was sure Barton wouldn't have a meltdown."

"We've no time for those." John agreed with the sentiment. "Whatever Loki's planned, it's not over just yet."

"I know." The taller man agreed. "Though you have to agree there's something off about all this. There has been from the start."

"So I'm not the only one who sees it!" Tony called loudly once more.

"What are you three talking about now?" Hill demanded.

Liam and Tony turned to look at each other with their 'I'm surrounded by idiots' expression, which made John decided to answer himself.

"Loki is supposed to be a genius, right?" He asked the room in general. "Thor at least implied something to that effect at some point. So, why then would a genius make this many mistakes when supposedly trying to conquer our planet?"

"Mistakes...?" Rogers blurted out, confused.

"Supposedly?!" Hill and Fury called, almost in unison.

"I'm not the only one who sees it, right?" John asked, to the nods of his two best friends and the baffled looks of everyone else. "Come on, I'm not a genius and I saw it!"

"As I've found out, you constantly see things others fail to, or simply do not care to see." Liam stated calmly. "I agree with your deduction, but am interested on how you reached it."

"What he said." Tony contributed.

"A man who's lived as long as Loki seems to have, who's a scholar and a top-grade sorcerer wouldn't have tried to conquer Earth, he simply would have." John stated. "He should have the power to do it, yet he doesn't, why?"

"You think someone's blocking his true power." Tony guessed.

"Either that or he cannot think to reach for it." John offered. "Also, someone who's lived that long, especially in a world filled with warriors would know at least basic strategy, right? Why then would he choose to go about his whole invasion attempt in such a way that instead of picking us off one by one, we are given the chance to gather together?"

"What...?" Several voices asked again.

"It's simple mathematics Cap." Tony stated in a 'duh' tone. "Loki could have picked us off one by one, being on our own and vulnerable. Instead he pushed for a situation that had us all gathered together, 'trying' to be a team, why?"

"To prove he's still stronger than us?" Hill asked, in a tone that made her anger obvious.

"Really?" Liam challenged. "Then why is none of us dead right now?"

That left everyone speechless.

"Liam's right." John agreed. "Just think about it. Thor fell, but he has the power to survive something like that. Same with Dr. Banner's alter ego. Barton is alive and back. And even when he lead the mercs on this ship, he didn't kill a single person, and you cannot tell me its because he didn't get a chance, or because he missed... because from what I know, he never misses a target."

"The logical deduction then would be that he wasn't meant to kill any of us." Liam took over where he left off. "Which means either Loki was being foolish, or there's something else going on we're not aware of..." He made a pause, as if only then noticing something, eyes staring straight at John. "You said, 'cannot think to reach for it'... Did you imply what I think you did?"

"Thor already said someone was giving him an army, had given him that scepter, what guarantee do we have that's were the intervention of this Other ended?" John declared.

"What are you talking about now?" Rogers demanded.

"Oh, I like this!" Tony announced, obviously being the able to follow the Scotts' line of thought. "John's proposing the theory that Reindeer Games might be as much of a puppet as Legolas was until Natashalie knocked him around a bit."

"That's ridiculous!" Hill scoffed.

"Why?" Liam challenged. "Because the idea didn't occur to you?"

"Because he's evil." Hill insisted.

"Evil, like many other things in this world, is subjective and a matter of perspective." Liam stated loftily. "We say a man who kills another is evil. But what about the soldiers in wars? You might say that they're battling enemies, so it's justified? But what about when they kill civilians? Maybe because they didn't know, maybe because they had too... How much can one justify? Because some might consider Loki to be at war, and wouldn't that justify his killing? You say he's the enemy, like we say about those in Afghanistan; they would say we're the evil ones. And if the theory holds, it wasn't even his choice to come here or fight us at all." He made a pause, seeing the disbelief in the SHIELD Agents. "You want so much to see him as evil, truth is you just want someone to blame for what's happening. Will you then blame Agent Barton for the attack here just now? Or for what happened in Stuttgart? Will you blame him and Selvig for the upcoming invasion? If we're right, what makes them any different?"

"And if you're wrong?" Fury demanded.

The two geniuses and the spouse of the second all either scoffed or chuckled. Liam might claim he was 'almost always right' to be grammatically correct, yet he knew the chances of such a thing happening were extremely small... all three of them believing the same (having come to the same conclusion separately) and being in the wrong? The odds were astronomical.

"So, now what?" Rogers asked.

"Now, we stop an invasion, then we find a way to prove our theory." Tony announced.

"Then its time to suit-up." Rogers announced, getting on his feet. "I shall let Agents Romanoff and Barton know."

With that, the four men began moving.

"Sir," Maria Hill called to her superior a moment later. "They don't even know where to go..."

"They will." Fury assured her.

He had no doubt about that. He might hardly be able to stand Stark and the Scotts, but there was no doubt that at least two of them were geniuses. If anyone had a chance at deducing where the alien invasion would be starting, it was them... then it would be up to the Avengers as a whole to defeat it. He just hoped Phil was right and they could really be the heroes the world needed.

 **xXx**

" _I am Iron Man, really Tony?"_

 _Tony, Liam and John were gathered together on the terrace of the Malibu house having a drink and discussing what had happened just the day before. John in particular was being rather insistent in his chiding of the genius and self-assigned superhero._

" _Please, you know he likes to be dramatic." Liam deadpanned._

" _Yes, and that reminds me of nobody else in my life." John stated sarcastically._

" _Forget about that, no use crying over spilled milk, or whatever." Liam stated. "I'd rather focus on something else entirely. Like the man who infiltrated this place last night."_

" _He hacked JARVIS." Tony hissed, tone dark._

 _Most probably wouldn't understand, they would see JARVIS just as a computer. But he was more, not just because he was an AI, it went beyond that. He reasoned, learned, felt... he was as close to human as any creature that hadn't been born as such could be. Tony knew that, he'd made him that way; and both John and Liam knew and accepted that fact. As such they realized that what Nick Fury had done was akin to violation in many ways. Having hacked JARVIS, having hurt him, was something neither man would ever forgive Fury, or SHIELD, for._

 _Tony cared little about things like the so-called Avengers Initiative, or whatever idea Fury and his organization might have about superheroes. He cared about his people: John, Liam, Pepper, Happy, Rhodey, and of course JARVIS and the bots... Which was why, the moment the man left, he began working on new code that would allow JARVIS to protect himself from such attacks in the future... he also promised himself that one day he'd get back at SHIELD for the travesty._

" _How are you feeling now?" John asked Tony quietly after a while._

" _Much better." Tony nodded, taking another sip of his drink. "But you should know that already, you're the one who does all my tests, Doc."_

" _True." The short man agreed. "It was fortunate that whatever damage the loss of the arc-reactor for those few minutes caused you, it wasn't permanent." He made a pause before adding. "Also fortunate that Pepper chose to create that gift for you rather than truly disposing of the old reactor like you told her too."_

" _It's why I like her." Tony stated with a grin, a phrase that would be stated time and again through the upcoming months and years, eventually evolving into 'it's why I love her'._

" _Pepper Potts is certainly a clever woman, almost a genius in her own way." Liam agreed._

" _That's the biggest compliment you'll ever hear from him." John told Tony conspiratorially._

 _The two laughed at that. Liam didn't, but smiled at his partner anyway._

 _They were having a good new life, he liked it, they both did in fact. Nothing like they would have ever imagined having, back before everything had changed unexpectedly, but still. Neither of them would be doing anything to endanger it._

" _Tony..." John murmured, voice grave. "What are we going to do about that?"_

 _He didn't even need to point, all three of them knew what he was speaking of. John wasn't an engineer or a chemist, but he was a doctor, the moment the other two had mentioned what made the core of the arc-reactor John had known what that meant for Tony's health._

" _I don't know that anything can be done." Tony admitted quietly._

" _You're not giving up." Liam stated strongly. "I'm not allowing you to give up Anthony Stark. We will try, theorize, experiment with every single element in the periodic table and any variation that we need to. But we will find a solution to this problem." He turned to his partner. "John, can you help him?"_

" _There are certain drugs..." John admitted, even as he contemplated the options available. "You included a medical license in the documents for our new identities. So there are some drugs, a few quite experimental, I might be able to get my hands on. They would help delay the effects of the palladium, might even work for treating the symptoms of the poisonings, but they won't work as a permanent solution... you need to find a substitute core for your arc-reactor if you are to survive past the next year or so."_

 _Tony nodded. It was a serious matter, and he knew that. He wasn't sure how hopeful he was of actually finding a solution... but Liam and John were willing to try, and so he would as well. He could do nothing less for two of his best friends._

 **xXx**

Liam got to the bridge, which was looking a bit worse for wear after the recent fight (which had included a grenade being detonated right there), right as Fury was giving orders about recovering communications and whatever else as needed. Iron Man (a bit beat up but still mostly functional) had just left the helicarrier, closely followed by a quinjet carrying Captain America, Hawkeye, Black Widow and Doc (what they'd agreed on calling Johnathan while in mission). Liam hadn't liked much him going, but neither of them had liked the idea of Tony going into something like what was coming with no backup he could actually trust. Even if they all still believed Dr. Banner would find his way and do what was right, there was no guarantee he would arrive in time (at least he was a genius and there was no reason to believe he wouldn't be able to reach the right conclusion regarding where the invasion would be starting, just like they had).

"I thought you would be on that jet." Fury commented when seeing him.

"Not really, John is more of a fighter than I am, always has been." Liam shrugged, not letting anyone see just how worried he was about his partner.

"All the same, I'd have expected the good doctor to want to keep an eye of Agent Coulson." Fury added, as if fishing for information.

"John is a doctor, and a very good one, but he's also a fighter, has always been." Liam had barely held from calling him a soldier, but that would have meant giving too much away.

The man knew there was a very good chance his secret, their secret, would come out before the end of the day (he was a genius, after all, he knew the odds), but he wasn't giving in until there was no other choice.

"I might be able to help with your communications issue." He announced simply.

"How?" Hill asked, honestly intrigued.

Fury was interested too, but he also knew enough to guess he probably wasn't going to like it.

"JARVIS." Liam answered, pulling a thumb-drive from his pocket. "I know a virus was used in your systems, which caused the failure of an engine as well as your loss of communications. This is a remote port for JARVIS. He will get into your systems, clean them up and give us the visuals and whatever else we might need. Even some you wouldn't usually have access to."

"In exchange of allowing you access to SHIELD's systems?" Hill asked testily. "I'm not sure I like that plan."

"I don't expect you to." Liam nodded calmly. "The question is, what matters more to you, right now? What's more important, the need to do what's right, or your pride?"

He might have said it in a perfectly even voice, but it was a challenge, and everyone who heard the words knew it. It was up to the two leaders of SHIELD to decide.

"Do it." Fury ordered after a brief hesitation.

"Sir!" Hill couldn't believe it.

"Hill, I might not like Stark and the Scotts, but I do know they're not our enemies." Fury stated calmly but authoritatively. "And right now we have enemies we need to deal with." He turned to the younger Scott. "Do it."

Liam passed over the thumb-drive to one of the techs, who plugged it into the nearest port. He wasn't too worried about recovering it afterwards, the device had been created for a single use. JARVIS would use it to gain access into SHIELD's network, and then it would be useless (they'd created it that way on purpose, to make sure not to leave anything SHIELD might try and use to hurt JARVIS again).

"JARVIS, you on?" Liam asked, a hand on his ear to focus on his special comm (he was wearing two, one that connected him only Tony, John and of course JARVIS, the other fixed on a general channel with all the Avengers).

"I am here, sir." JARVIS replied.

"All eyes and ears you can get on Manhattan, do so." Liam ordered as he commandeered one of the screens. "Anything you think Tony or John need to be aware of, let them know, anything you think one of the others need to know, tell me."

"Yes, sir." JARVIS said.

Fury and Hill had to admit it was a good plan. Soon enough every screen had a mix of images and sounds from whatever cameras and other devices in downtown New York that hadn't yet been destroyed. Some of them were redirected to Liam's screen and then he would give instructions to one of the Avengers, either warning them of a danger, civilians trapped, or suggesting alternative courses of action.

Liam might not have been fighting down there, but he was doing as much as any of the others to help in the battle.

The battle went on for a long time, though none of them were keeping count, and then:

"Sir, the council is on." Hill announced unexpectedly.

Liam caught Fury's brief gut reaction to that announcement, it wasn't good. For the most part he kept his attention on helping the team, but he was a genius and quite capable of doing several things at the same time, so he focused a part of him on that call.

Things really didn't go well.

"Director Fury, the council has made a decision." One of the councilmen stated after a quite long and trying argument.

"I recognize the council has made a decision, but given that it's a stupid ass decision, I've elected to ignore it." Fury retorted with quiet anger.

From his spot Liam couldn't help but think Fury had guts, he'd known few people willing to respond that way to those more powerful than themselves; even his brother would rather bow to the pressure of what few authorities he had than stand for himself and what he knew was right.

Director, you're closer than any of our subs, you scramble that jet..." Another of the council members began, probably believing they were being reasonable.

"That is the island of Manhattan, Councilman." Fury spat. "Until I'm certain my team can't hold it, I will not order a nuclear strike against a civilian population."

But of course they didn't believe in the Avengers, they never had; they probably were the kind of purists that believed that anyone not fully human was somehow less... which was absolutely ridiculous. Or maybe it was simply the fact that they knew if the Avengers actually won, they would have power and authority, which the WSC themselves never would.

"If we don't hold them in the air, we lose everything." Another insisted.

"If I send that bird out, we already have." Fury stated, as blank as he could.

Fury was about to interrupt the conference call, when Liam was suddenly standing beside him.

"If I may interfere, lady and gentlemen." He called stoically.

"Who are you?" Practically all the members of the council demanded at the same time.

"My name is irrelevant." The tall man stated, before allowing his usual American accent to vanish,

stating in completely unaccented English: "Code: Mike-Sierra-Hotel-Zero-Six-Zero-One-Five-Four. Authorization: Sea Lion."

The reaction from everyone on the World Security Council was immediate and chaotic, however, before any questions could be made, Liam himself interrupted communications.

"What did you just do?!" Fury demanded, on the edge of losing it.

"Buy you, buy us all some time." Liam answered honestly. "At best, that code will be enough to make them rethink their choices to bomb NY..."

"And at worst?" Hill asked from a side.

"It will give us a few minutes." Liam replied, before pressing a hand to his comm. "John, Tony!"

"Yeah?" Both answered about the same time.

"We're running out of time." He stated in a completely no-nonsense tone. "The WSC just tried to send a nuke into Manhattan."

"Tried?" Tony repeated, just to make sure.

"What did you do?" John went for what he thought was the important point.

"Gave them Mycroft's highest security code." Liam answered after a deep breath.

"Oh love..." There was such sadness in John's voice, all who heard him couldn't help but feel it.

"Can you get out of there before they call back?" Tony asked, going straight to 'worst case scenario' in his mind.

"I could, maybe." Liam shrugged, not even trying to hide his conversation from the leaders of SHIELD. "But I won't. It's been years... maybe it's time I stop running."

"We." John corrected him. "You know I will always stand by you, always."

"I know John, I know." Liam assured him.

"Very well, in that case, lets finish this already so we can all go home!" Tony announced.

It wouldn't be long before Romanoff announced she could close the portal. In the last moment Tony would get the crazy idea of sending his suit through; after doing a crazy maneuver that allowed him to get out of the suit and land on the tower's rooftop while JARVIS remotely directed the empty shell through the portal and wherever the Chitauri were coming from, activating the self-destruct (and even without the arc-reactor in, the suit had enough power to make them burn!). Also, they weren't sure if it was the huge explosion or the closing of the portal, but something made all the aliens left on Earth collapse, like puppets whose strings had been abruptly cut off. The battle was over, they'd won.

In the helicarrier, Liam let out a breath as he went to sit on the nearest chair. He could hear Tony making his crazy plan, John cursing him, even as JARVIS helped his master. But his attention was soon claimed by Fury.

"What did you do?" He asked the genius straight on.

"I already told you Director." Liam answered blankly.

"You told me how we could expect them to react, but not why, what it means to you." Fury insisted, he knew he was missing something, again.

"You've always suspected that William Scott wasn't my real name." The tall British man told him quite calmly. "Well, guess what? You were right! At least in part..."

"Who are you?" Hill asked, slowly but sharply.

Liam seemed to consider the question for several seconds before shrugging. What the hell? It's not like they wouldn't all know. They would be looking up that code, which would take them to Mycroft, and from them it wouldn't be hard for the politician to deduce how exactly that code had ended in the ears of the World Security Council. He might as well make the conscious choice of saying his name, his real name, at least once, himself:

"My name is William Sherlock Scott Holmes."

* * *

I'm sure everyone reading knew who exactly Tony's friends were from the get go, but my muse insisted that the story be written this way anyway.

Not sure if you've realized this already, but the fic title actually comes from Agents of SHIELD (which has nothing to do with this piece, just so you know). In the second episode, when they are learning to be a team, there is talk about each of them not needing to do it all on their own, they can work together to come up with a solution, I think it's Skye who actually says it together, about them working together 'like pieces of a puzzle'.

Now, for the second surprise, as should be probably obvious by this point. This is the one piece in all the series that wasn't finished in a One-Shot (I tried, believe me, I did, my muse fought me tooth and nail and in the end refused to cooperate, so I ended up splitting it). Which means next week we'll see the conclusion of this. It will include a last flashback, handling how and when exactly this three meant, the kind of aftermath-of-the-Battle-of-New-York I feel we were owed in canon and, a little something else, but I'll leave that as a surprise.

So, hope you liked this and will be reading the second half next week. See ya around!


	2. Part 2

I'm extremely sorry for the lateness. I decided to update to Windows 10 last night and my laptop pretty much crashed (not literally but the screen won't stop flickering and I cannot access anything, so the point remains the same).

Anyway, here we are. Enjoy the second half of this!

* * *

 **Pieces of a Puzzle** (Part 2)

" _The East Wind takes us all in the end." SH_

" _There's an East Wind coming..." JW_

 _Tony Stark was sitting ramrod straight in the medical cot of the military hospital in Kandahar. Forcing himself to stay awake despite his exhaustion through sheer will alone. On the bed next to him laid his former-fellow-hostage, who, after the last nearly-three-months, Tony was almost ready to call a friend. His friend was sleeping, something necessary after everything they'd been through. They'd agreed to take turns to rest, and while he'd tried to convince Tony to do so first, Tony had won that particular argument simply because, due to an injury he'd sustained in their daring escape of the captivity, the other man had lost a considerable amount of blood and was considerably weaker in that moment._

 _They couldn't both sleep at the same time because Tony had a certain something embedded in his chest that he wasn't about to allow anyone to get anywhere near. He'd refused to let even doctors touch him. Rhodey, as great a friend as he might be, was too by-the-rules, for Tony to be sure his wishes would be respected. Hence, forcing himself to stay awake._

 _And the necessity of that became obvious as the door into the small room opened and yet another doctor stepped inside. He was shorter than any of the ones before him, with sun-bleached blonde hair, a wrinkled lab-coat, huge shadows under dark eyes and a pair of glasses Tony knew for a fact were meant for people with tired eyesight._

" _Good afternoon Mr. Stark." The doctor greeted him with a respectful nod. "I wasn't expecting you to be awake."_

" _You're not getting anywhere near me." Tony spat, ignoring any and all pleasantries._

" _Yes, I'm aware you have refused any and all attention." The man nodded, seemingly not offended in the slightest. "I wonder, is there something specific you're unwilling to accept? Do you have a phobia of doctors? Distrust the local medical care?"_

 _Tony actually held back a snippy retort at the man's thoughtful questions. Not only he hadn't gotten offended, but he honestly seemed interested in knowing why Tony refused._

" _None of those, I simply don't want anyone near my... me." Tony corrected in the last moment._

" _I understand you were in captivity for three months." The doctor stated very professionally. "I'm a former military, and not at all ignorant about the kind of things you might have gone through during that time. PTSD is perfectly natural, as is an aversion for any number of things and situations, I only want to make sure you are on the mend, sir." He made a pause before adding. "If there is a specific thing you don't want me to do, or don't want me to touch, we could work around it." He adopted a lighter tone as he added. "To be perfectly honest with you. It might even help the people here at the base be convinced to send you back to your country sooner, if they're sure you won't die on the journey."_

 _Stark hadn't actually considered that. Which made him actually begin to consider the chances. However, before he could make a decision, something unexpected happened, that changed everything in an instant._

" _Sherlock...?!" The doctor gasped, suddenly breathless._

 _It was until Tony had been left thinking about things that the doctor had turned his attention to the second bed and the man on it. Despite his longer and much dirtier hair, paler skin and emaciated and badly injured body, Dr. John Watson could still see through all that and recognize the man laying on that bed:_

" _You know him, how do you know him?!" Tony demanded, fully focused on that._

" _I... of course I know him..." The doctor gasped beneath his tears. "He's my best friend..."_

" _You're Dr. John Watson..." Stark murmured in realization._

" _How...?" John wasn't expecting that._

" _Siggy told me about you." Tony explained._

" _Siggy?" John really didn't understand._

" _When he arrived he claimed his name was Sigerson." Tony explained. "Of course I know now that's not his real name..." He made a pause, taking a deep breath before adding: "One night, a few days before we made our escape, he said... he told me that if he didn't make it out I was to find you, make sure you knew well... that you knew..."_

 _He couldn't finish it. Was it even right to say that kind of things when Sig...Sherlock was right there? Shouldn't he handle that himself?_

" _It's okay." John said quietly "I think I know. I took me a bit long to realize it, much longer than it should have. But I know now." He went to take the unconscious Sherlock's hand in his. "I know now, and I'm never leaving him again."_

 _Tony nodded, in absolute agreement._

" _Just what happened?" Tony asked, very interested. "Last thing he knew you were happily married and getting ready to receive your daughter..."_

" _Which didn't happen..." John drawled. "That wife turned out to be a liar, a cheater, as well as a not-so-former assassin, who used to work for the man responsible for Sherlock having to fake his suicide in front of me and stay away for two years and, if that weren't enough, then shooting my best friend, whom she'd already seen me grieve before, in the vena cava, with clear intent to kill... I will never know how Sherlock managed to survive, that was a miracle... and one I'll be forever grateful for." He let out a breath. "It was a mess."_

" _Why are you here?" The millionaire inquired, curious._

" _How about this, Mr. Stark?" John proposed suddenly. "You let me give you a check-over, I promise not to do anything you don't want. And meanwhile we'll talk. I'll answer your questions, and you'll tell me what's been of Sherlock these last few months?"_

" _Deal." Tony agreed after thinking it over, he pulled at the neckline of the borrowed t-shirt to show the edge of something glowing on his chest. "One thing: whatever else, don't touch this."_

" _Understood." John nodded. "Then, Mr. Stark, lets begin."_

 _And so they exchanged stories. John explained about Mary having a sudden miscarriage shortly after Sherlock had left, and in the midst of all that pain, finding out that the baby had never his at all, but her ex-boyfriend's (who apparently was less of an ex than they'd thought) the annulment, moving back to 221B Baker Street; then, three months later, Mycroft visiting to inform him that MI6 had stormed the terrorist hideout where Sherlock had been undercover for six months. The agents had been forced to half bring the place down and after finding out traces of a great amount of blood, Sherlock's blood, in one of the rooms they had been left with no other option but to declare the consulting detective as KIA._

 _John had nearly gone crazy after that. He knew Sherlock would never forgive him if he were to do something as stupid as kill himself; but he just couldn't continue as he was, so John decided to join a group of volunteers to help in Afghanistan (he couldn't go as a soldier anymore, but he was still a damn good doctor). He'd actually arrived shortly after Tony was kidnapped._

 _Tony in turn told him about Sherlock being dumped into his and Yinsen's cell shortly after Tony himself woke up. Yinsen being the only competent doctor anywhere nearby. He'd been very badly hurt, obviously the result of torture, it was a miracle he'd survived and recovered as much as he had. Afterwards Tony had made sure to convince the Ten Rings of that 'Sigerson' was completely indispensable to his work, to make sure they wouldn't hurt him or take him away._

 _John would be forever thankful to Tony for that._

 _With John there (though even Tony was surprised at how much he was willing to trust the man simply because of the things Sherlock had said about him during their three months of shared captivity), Tony finally decided to sleep. John fulfilled his word and didn't allow anyone else to get close (the fact that he'd managed to do a check-over and submit the results helped greatly, he was sure of that)._

 _Eventually Sherlock woke up, equal parts shocked and delighted by John's presence and drugged enough he actually expressed his delight openly in ways he never would have had he been in his right mind... or maybe it was less the drugs, and more the recent near-death experience and extended separation (John could remember with sadness and regret some of the things Sherlock had said upon his return after The Fall, and how he'd punched the consulting detective instead of taking him into his arms like he'd wanted to, deep down)._

 _The moment the two former hostages were feeling well-enough to get out of the hospital, plans were made and put in motion. Sherlock was still believed dead back in the UK, and even if he weren't, there was no way of knowing what would happen, as he'd technically been sent to serve in place of being sent to prison. John was in Afghanistan legally as part of a summer volunteer program (which had technically ended a month prior, though he'd chosen to stay, not wanting to return to a London without Sherlock); he refused to even consider going anywhere without his partner. So, in the end it was (relatively) simple. Tony made arrangements for Sherlock to return to the US with him, using the name the Ten Rings had known him by. John traveled under his own name, as the men's doctor. Once in California Tony contacted a hacker friend of his who helped him get all the documents for two new identities for the men: and thus William and Johnathan Scott came to be._

 **xXx**

By some sort of non-verbal almost-instinctive accord, the group of heroes that had saved New York, gathered the following morning in the kitchen of Tony's penthouse. They'd slept in various rooms in the lower floors which, unknown to most, Tony was already making plans to remodel into apartments for each of them (just in case they ever needed a place to stay); except for the Scotts, since they already had their own floor, right beneath Tony and Pepper's (technically it was part of the penthouse), and sharing the common areas. They were all family after all.

Liam was a bit jumpy that morning, though only those who really knew him (read John, Tony and Pepper) truly realized it. He didn't allow John to get more than three feet or so away from him, and spent as much time as possible with their non-dominant hands entwined. Most who noticed those details thought he was just trying to reassure himself, after having watched his partner battle aliens (and nearly get killed more than once) the day before; John knew the truth. He was waiting, waiting for what they both knew was coming their way.

It took a while, with all the talking and lighthearted joking, and of course the soreness the more human members of the team of superheroes were feeling (not everyone healed as fast as Thor and Captain Rogers, or was as immune as the Hulk), but eventually they were finished with breakfast and moved on to the living room, where they all took seats gathering in smaller groups. Liam and Pepper had taken one of the biggest couches, with John on Liam's other side and Pepper half on the arm-seat, half on Tony's legs (she too refused to be too far away from her lover after the day before); Romanoff had pretty much pushed Barton into an armchair before settling herself on the floor between his legs; Banner took a place in another of the couches, and was joined by Thor after Rogers chose a spot on the floor, beside the armchair where Barton sat, instead. The moment they were all there, Tony pulled a tablet seemingly out of nowhere, and with a few clicks the TV was showing them all something.

"Come on!" Barton whined. "I thought we were taking the day off!"

"What are you doing Stark?" Rogers inquired, confused.

After all, it'd been Tony who'd insisted on them all taking the day off...

"I'm proving a theory!" He announced exuberantly.

Only Rogers and the Scotts among those present knew what he was talking about, the others hadn't the slightest idea. The Captain wasn't sure if it was a good idea at all, but had a feeling there would be no stopping Tony, so he let it go on.

"This." He announced bringing up picture of Dr. Selvig. "Is Dr. Selvig's profile picture. Please focus on the eyes."

A few others began suspecting they weren't going to like where things were going, but it was too late to stop Tony, if he could have ever been stopped.

"This picture is one of the last things the Pegasus facility took before it went down." He stated as he brought another up, the Dr.'s eyes were blue and looked wrong. "The next one is one JARVIS took when he was in that rooftop yesterday, right before everything started." Still the same eyes. "And finally, this is today."

The last picture showed a haggard-looking man, obviously exhausted, like he was just coming out of a bad sickness... but his eyes looked like they had in the first picture.

"Next." He pulled up a profile picture of Barton.

Barton tensed, only Romanoff managing to keep him from bolting. However, before Stark could begin with the same diatribe, John placed a hand on the genius's arm, staring straight at him. It was like his eyes communicated something, for he shrugged and vanished the picture. Barton relaxed minutely and everyone else let out a breath.

"Alright then." He pulled on the next picture, one of Loki. "This was taken in the Pegasus facility the day it all began."

"That has to be wrong." Thor murmured.

"Not wrong." Liam interfered gruffly. "Just pay attention and you'll understand."

Thor grumbled but did as told, and Tony continued. He began pulling more photos then, most from CCTV, in Stuttgart, both before entering the gala he'd interrupted and afterwards, while he'd terrorized all those humans, one from when he'd been taken into custody, on the quinjet, one taken by the suit on the forest they'd half destroyed, several in the helicarrier (though he carefully avoided anything after the attack had begun), then on Stark Tower, and through the battle.

"Enough!" Cried out Romanoff eventually, losing all patience. "That's about enough Stark. Either get to the point or quit this idiocy."

"No idiocy." Tony stated. "All the opposite in fact."

"Tony..." John called, quietly but authoritatively.

"Bit not good." Liam added, in a knowing tone.

Pepper smiled, also knowingly, and Tony rolled his eyes, though he did get to the point. All the prior stills serving as a frame of sorts for the new image, which was actually a video window, showing Loki were he was in that moment, sitting in one of the to-be-labs several floors down in the same tower, which had been re-conditioned to act as temporary cell.

"This is Loki right now." He stated with sudden seriousness, before doing a close-up of the sorcerer's face... his eyes were green.

"Oh..." Steve, Pepper and Bruce breathed out almost in unison.

"What's the meaning of this?!" Barton demanded hotly.

"Did you not get the point he was trying to make with Selvig's pictures earlier?" Liam drawled. "It was obvious enough that even one such as you should have picked up on it."

"One such as..." Barton began, he was really on a short fuss right then.

"Liam, bit not good." John snapped chidingly at his husband before turning to the archer. "No offense meant Clint. You should know already Liam and Tony are quite similar in that their tongues get ahead of them most of the time. Being genius they forget that not everyone picks up things like they do, and when they do remember they treat everyone else like idiots... there just seems to be no middle point with them."

"Hence the, 'bit not good', comments." Pepper added for good measure. "Most of the time a look is enough to keep them under control..."

"Except when they're too excited, or running on more than forty-eight hours without sleep." John glared at both geniuses, who could only shrug.

"All of that is irrelevant." Romanoff practically spat. "You still cannot be implying that Loki..."

"I imply nothing Agent Romanoff." Liam stated, offended. "Neither does Tony, for that matter. We state. We've had this theory since yesterday at the helicarrier, before the battle either took place. And now we can prove it."

"What made you reach that conclusion?" Bruce asked, interested. "Besides the eye-color."

"Loki is a genius, as well as a superb sorcerer, someone with the kind of brains and power that he was supposed to have would have never made all the stupid mistakes he did." Tony deadpanned. "Going before cameras, allowing himself to be seen, when he should have been capable of stealing whatever he needed with no one so much as noticing?"

"Getting himself captured, and into a cell, when his magic should have given him an out at any moment?" Liam took over.

"There was an attack on the helicarrier, and yet not a single person died." Tony continued.

"Phil almost did!" Clint snarled.

"Almost being the operative word here." John intervened. "I'm not justifying his actions. But the kind of wound Phil had... it was precise, too precise. Damage to a single lung, nothing at all to the heart... even the vena cava, which got the worst, wasn't fully severed. Even if I hadn't been the one there, any doctor with enough experience and the right resources would have been able to save his life." He shivered slightly before adding. "Trust me when I tell you I've done extensive research on such wounds, I know how bad a wound like that can be, and the odds of someone surviving it..."

One or two noticed the way the hold he had on Liam's hand tightened almost convulsively, and how Liam's hand briefly and almost absentmindedly drifted to a specific spot in his own chest, but neither of them commented about that.

"You're saying..." Rogers couldn't even finish, even in his head the idea sounded too crazy.

"Agent Coulson was never meant to die." Liam finished for him. "He was meant to be the straw that broke the camel's back, but nothing permanently damaging." He made a pause before clarifying, just in case. "He was meant to bring all of you together."

"All of us, bro, all of us." Tony corrected him. "You're part of this team too."

Everyone nodded almost absentmindedly at that comment, mostly still focused on everything else that was being said.

"And that's the other point." John took over when he noticed the geniuses had gotten distracted from the main conversation. "What kind of 'genius villain' does everything to get the 'heroes' together, instead of picking them off one at a time when they're separated and more vulnerable, if only because they're alone?"

No one had a response to that. Truth was, when seen under that light even Natasha, who hated Loki with everything she was for the way he'd hurt her dearest friend, had to admit something just didn't feel right anymore.

"Thank you my friends!" Thor said loudly and full of joy. "You have just saved my brother!"

Neither of the three men actually agreed with that. They'd proved a theory, true, that Loki had been manipulated, most likely by the same individual who'd given him the scepter and made him leader of their army. But that didn't mean it was over just yet. At the same time, neither man had done that to save anyone, mostly simply because once they noticed something they couldn't not investigate it. It was in their nature...

Before a single word more could be said, JARVIS interrupted.

"Sir, a quinjet has just landed on the roof." The AI informed. "It carries Director Fury, Deputy Director Hill, a couple of Agents, as well as a man and a woman, foreigner, and who appear on your red list."

"Red list?" Rogers asked, half-confused and half-worried.

He was completely ignored both by those who did know and those as ignorant as him.

"They're here." Liam murmured, and seemed to almost shudder.

"Here." Tony called, pulling a plastic envelope out of somewhere and handing it to John.

"What is this?" The short man asked, even as he opened it and looked inside.

"Basic papers." Tony answered honestly. "Nothing that'll hold under intense scrutiny but enough to get you out of the state. There's also enough money to last you at least a week. Take any of the cars downstairs, I know you have emergency bags packed already in case of an emergency, take all that and go. In the envelope is also a burner phone with two numbers programmed, mine in case you have an emergency, you call me. Then there's Skye's, I called her last night and she promised to have your new identities ready by Monday. So you can call her that day and arrange where to pick them up. I'll be paying for them, of course, same as the last time."

No one said a word as Tony seemed to go through his whole speech without stopping to breathe even once. However, when he did, the reaction wasn't what he was expecting:

"No Tony." Liam murmured quietly.

"What?!" The millionaire obviously wasn't expecting that.

"John and I talked about it last night." The tall man explained calmly. "We all knew this was going to happen sooner or later." He let out a sigh. "I'm tired of running Tony. We both are."

"John..." Tony began, turning to look at the shorter man.

"I knew this would happen someday." The gray-eyed one admitted. "Cannot say I like it. But I knew. We've had a great time since we met you Tony, truly awesome. I have no idea where either of us would be if we'd never met you... but maybe it's time we went back to being who we're supposed to be..."

"And just who is that?" Romanoff questioned.

"Brother..." A new voice breathed out almost at the same time.

Everyone turned to the entrance at once. Fury and Hill were standing there, along with a tall man with dark auburn short hair, a receding hairline and gray eyes and a brunette woman with hazel eyes, both wearing dark-suits.

"Doctor..." The man murmured next, noticing the shorter Scott. "I don't think I'm even surprised at finding you here."

"You really shouldn't." John agreed.

"Just what's going on Fury?!" Tony demanded strongly, purposefully trying to call the attention of the newcomers onto himself.

"These are Lord Mycroft Sherrinford Holmes, from the British parliament, and his wife, Lady Anna Isabel Kemp-Holmes." Fury introduced.

Both Scotts raised their eyebrows at the last part of that declaration. Of course they'd know those two were together (John had more suspected than actually known), but they'd never excepted them to actually make it legal, or public.

"Lord and Lady Holmes." Fury went on. "These are Captain Steve Rogers, Captain America; Agent Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow; Agent Clint Barton, Hawkeye; Prince Thor Odinson of Asgard; Tony Stark, Iron Man; and Dr. Johnathan and Mr. William Scott; these are the Avengers, the heroes who just saved New York and the world from an alien invasion yesterday." He made a pause before adding. "We also have present Miss Virginia 'Pepper' Potts, CEO of Stark Industries..."

"And my future wife." Tony interjected, as Pepper raised her hand to show the ring.

The first thing Tony had done when seeing Pepper was get on one knee before her and ask her to marry him, while still in his half torn jump-suit (from the rough landing on his own roof), Pepper looking extremely anxious, with wind-blown hair and carrying her heels on her hands (she'd taken them off to be able to run). She had said yes almost before Tony finished asking. It had been quiet a touching moment, and shocking too, to those who didn't known Stark and would have never expected something like that from him.

"Right..." The thing seemed to throw even Fury off.

"Those aren't their names." Holmes didn't focus on Stark or his fiancé, but on the married couple beside them. "Why don't you say your real names?"

"Is all this grand-standing really necessary, brother?" Liam drawled, the last word sounding as sharp as a blade.

Thor couldn't help but remember several occasions when Loki had used the same tone when calling him that... before his near-coronation and everything that followed.

"He won't be doing anything unless he wants to!" Tony snapped defensively.

"A guard-dog, how cute." Mycroft said condescendingly, not expecting the other man's reaction to his words and attitude.

"Enough." Liam stated, voice dead cold. "You will not say anything disparaging about my friends, understood, Mycroft? These are not goldfish for you to play with. You will treat them with respect, or so help me I will make you regret it. And trust me, I've learned quite a few interesting things since you sent me to Eastern Europe for the second time!"

Mycroft's eyes widened at that, but what he didn't know was that it wasn't over just yet.

"Wait a second, so you're the bastard who sent him to Eastern Europe?!" Tony snarled, furious like he'd never been before. "It was because of you that he was beaten and tortured to an inch of his life! You motherfuc..."

"Tony, that's enough!" Liam ordered loudly.

And yet no one thought to stop Pepper, no one could have imagined what she would do... until the impact of flesh on flesh echoed across the room and everyone was left watching Mycroft Holmes, with his head turned sideways even as the bright red imprint of a hand appeared on his cheek; a certain redhead standing before him, almost trembling with rage.

"Go Pepper!" Tony cheered loudly.

Most of those present, Maria Hill included, couldn't help but respect the woman for what she'd just done... even if most still didn't understand what was going on.

"That's really not necessary Pepper..." Liam murmured quietly, a hint of obvious sentiment in his voice. "But thank you."

"He deserves that, and much more." Pepper stated icily, seemingly considering how good her chances were of getting away with a second slap, in the end she chose to return to Tony instead.

"Yes, if someone told us what's going on already, I wouldn't mind." Romanoff called.

Liam turned to look at John once, a silent look heavy with so much meaning, then they both nodded at the same time. Hands still clasped together the two stood up and without looking at anyone in specific, they spoke in turn:

"My name is William Sherlock Scott Holmes-Watson."

"And I am John Hamish Holmes-Watson."

A beat or two, and suddenly the reactions began.

"The Sherlock Holmes and John Watson?!" Clint cried out, sounding more alive and focused than at any point except for the actual battle day before, since being taken by Loki. "The British Consulting Detectives?"

John actually blushed, just a little. So many people had seen him as little more than Sherlock's shadow for so long, the sidekick, the assistant, the 'eternal bachelor'... he never expected to be listed alongside Sherlock, as his equal.

"Apparently we've found another fan of your blog John." Sherlock drawled in a half-bored tone, though his eyes showed he knew what John was thinking and agreed with Clint.

It'd always been amazing how much those two could communicate with a single look. That was something that hadn't changed at all, despite the names or city where they lived.

"Excuse me, a blog?" Rogers inquired, quite confused.

Tony reached for his StarkPad again, but Pepper was faster than him. In seconds Loki's pics and video had vanished from the screen (they'd have to bring that matter up with Fury and Hill later), instead John's old blog appeared on. The last post at the very top. It was dated on the first days of July, had no header, and the body of it read: _'He was my best-friend, my partner, my perfect match. I will never forget, and I will Always Believe in Sherlock Holmes.'_ Underneath it was a picture of the two men (with their original hair-color) standing side by side, in identical black tuxedos with white shirts, light-colored ties and white boutonnieres, holding top-hats in their hands. It looked almost like a wedding picture; and it was, though it hadn't been their wedding... all other pictures had been summarily deleted right after the annulment, at the same time John had posted a small announcement that the marriage had failed over 'irreconcilable differences' (though, unknown to John, his sister Harry had made sure everyone knew, without a doubt, that it had been Mary's fault and not his).

"What's the great deal about this?!" Romanoff spat. "Consulting Detective? That's not even a real job! Those don't exist."

"They do." Sherlock stated quiet calmly. "Even if we're the only ones. We would be, I invented the job after all."

"You invented an illusion." Romanoff insisted.

"Not at all Miss Romanova." Sherlock purposefully used her original surname. "It's how I knew exactly what you were from the first time we met."

"That's ridiculous!" The redhead insisted.

"No, just very hard to do." John corrected calmly. "Few people in the world have his talents, and only he uses them in such a way. I can also assure you he knew from the very start, he came to me with it and we contemplated every possible route the situation might take, every single one, before we even went to Tony and Pepper with it. In the end it was Sherlock's plan to let you and your employers believe you had succeeded in infiltrating SI while keeping an eye on you, making sure that whatever you might be trying, if it was nefarious, we would be there to stop it."

"All you did was stop me from injecting him with a drug he needed." Romanoff hissed.

"A drug that, when combined with the treatments I already had him on, might have killed him, or at the very least, worsened his condition considerably." John retorted with cold fury. "And even if it hadn't, it wasn't something Tony ever gave his consent for. You see, I have a problem with people doing things to others without their fully informed, free consent. Like injecting them with unknown substances," he eyed her before turning to glare at Fury and Hill. "Faking a death with the intent to manipulate others, lying to the people who follow you because it's convenient, creating a cover-story for a death that makes it impossible for a man to move on from the monster that betrayed and nearly destroyed him," he turned just enough to spear Mycroft with his stare next. "Sending them on a suicide-mission to the other side of the continent rather than standing up for family, rather than being truthful about a buggering bastard who made everyone so afraid even Parliament ceded to him!"

"John..." Sherlock cut him off quietly. "That's alright, what's done is done."

"It's still not right." John stated, but agreed to give up on his rant.

"Going back to your continued complaints, Miss Romanova." Sherlock said, focusing on her again. "I am a genius, something which I focus now on helping Tony; and back in London I did so by taking private cases every so often and consulting with New Scotland Yard whenever they couldn't solve a crime, which was almost all the time." He smiled. "As for how I knew what I knew about you. Most people see... I observe."

Several people seemed to be left pondering what exactly that meant, while others took hold of tablets Pepper offered them and began perusing John's blog in an attempt to familiarize themselves with the true identities of the two men before them.

"Why are you really here, Mycroft?" Sherlock asked after an extended silence. "If it was just to berate me for using your top-secret authorization code to keep a bunch of senseless bastards from trying to nuke downtown Manhattan you could have simply phoned..."

"Couldn't I have wanted to come and make sure my little brother was okay?" Mycroft asked in turn, and there was a hint of... something, in his voice.

"Please!" Sherlock drawled. "As if you didn't know I was alive and just where I was!"

"I did not." It seemed to cost something vital to Mycroft to admit that, but he did.

"He's telling the truth, Sherlock." Anna murmured, in an attempt to make peace. "The last we knew of you was that you'd been found, imprisoned and... interrogated by the terrorist cell in Eastern Europe. Half the place was blown up during the operation, and while none of the remains were ever effectively identified as yours... it was the belief that you had to be dead..."

Because no one... no one normal could ever be expected to survive what had happened to him, what had been done to him... then again, Sherlock never claimed to be normal (matter of fact, he reveled on being the exact opposite of normal).

"That's impossible!" Sherlock refused to believe it. "Even if you didn't have contacts in the Middle East at the time, the records of my stay in the hospital... and John..."

Tony's sudden and rather loud clearing of his throat interrupted Sherlock's rant.

"I never told him anything." John blurted out right about then. "I never would have. He was the one who sent you out there in the first place!"

Mycroft actually flinched at the reminder of that.

"Things weren't supposed to go down like that." Anna revealed softly. "We had a plan. A video would be transmitted into every screen in the country at the same time, showing Moriarty making a threat in his quite unique style..."

"But Moriarty is dead!" John interrupted.

"Indeed, but only a few select people know that." Anna reminded him. "Because at the time when he shot himself most didn't believe Moriarty existed, so his records were kept top secret, and by the time Sherlock was back and everything had been cleared the public would much rather forget they'd ever made such a grievous mistake as to believe a monster like him about anything." She made a pause before adding. "Also, if one genius had already managed to fake his death, what guarantee could they have that another hadn't done the same?"

Several people in the room had to nod in the agreement.

"So you prepared a video to fake his return, what for?" Tony inquired, interested.

"I'd managed to convince Parliament that Sherlock might one day be needed again." Mycroft said quietly. "They'd agreed to extract him from Eastern Europe regardless of the mission if it ever became necessary. I believed the possibility of the return of a foe such as James Moriarty would push them into keeping my brother in the country. Then he could chase ghosts just long enough to convince them to sign a pardon."

Neither Sherlock nor John knew what to say to that.

"So, what happened to that plan then?" Pepper wanted to know.

"The video didn't air." Anna stated. "Someone managed some impressive counter-hacking and undid everything we'd prepared. We had no contingency for that. So Sherlock was taken to Eastern Europe for that mission and we couldn't stop it."

"Who could have countered what you were doing?" Hill asked. "It would have needed to be someone who was close enough to find out what you were planning and..."

"Oh no..." John's abrupt moan interrupted her analysis. "Please tell me it wasn't..."

"I'm afraid so." Anna nodded with a sad smile.

"But how?!" John practically snapped. "Even I didn't know you were planning anything!"

"As has been established before, Mary had previous experience in, shall we say, certain things." Sherlock reminded him calmly. "I'm actually not that surprised. She was probably afraid of what might happen if I wasn't sent away... after I didn't die when she shot me, and you'd already spent months away from her when you were supposed to still be newlyweds."

"Yeah well, if she'd never shot you, we wouldn't have had any trouble, would we?" John couldn't help but sound almost petulant as he said that.

"We also might have never gotten to where we are now." Sherlock pointed out softly. "I cannot exactly regret it if only for that reason."

"I think we would have." John countered. "Maybe not here, not exactly. But we would have gotten together. I mean, even on our honeymoon I couldn't help but think about you, about what you might think about this or that. I couldn't handle more than a month living in the suburbs before I went looking for you... also, the whole baby-not-being-mine would have brought the end sooner or later."

Sherlock smiled at him. Neither of them were the kind for public displays of affection, but they still smiled at each other, saying everything they needed to in one look.

"As sickeningly sweet as the two of you are, there's one thing I still don't understand." Clint said in a drawl. "Why were you sent to Eastern Europe at all?"

"Because I killed Magnussen." Sherlock answered honestly.

"Magnussen?" Hill blurted out. "As in Charles Augustus Magnussen, the media magnate?"

"The very same." Sherlock shrugged.

"Why?" Hill didn't understand.

"Because he was a buggering bastard who saw people as tools and blackmailed them as convenient." John answered rather crudely. "He'd half of Parliament in his pocket and had set eyes on the Holmes brothers to be next. I have no idea what he had on Mycroft, but he wouldn't go against the bastard, while Sherlock did. He had no pressure points, it's not like the world didn't know practically all about him, in part due to my blog, in part due to the mess we'd had with Moriarty years before. He discovered though, that he could use me to pressure Sherlock, and if not me specifically, someone I cared for... my wife."

"How exactly was that supposed to work?" Hill asked, confused of the logic behind it.

"My wife, Mary Morstan... well turns out she didn't exist." John tried to explain in as few words as possible. "The real Mary Morstan was stillborn. The woman I called my wife took that name to create a new identity for herself five years or so before I met her. She'd once been an assassin for hire, had worked with Moriarty even, as one of his snipers, even had us in her cross-hairs at least twice; and Magnussen knew that. He knew it long before I did. I suspect he might have known her before she was ever Mary Morstan. He threatened to release that information unless Sherlock gave him what he wanted."

No one asked why Sherlock would do anything for John's wife, it was obvious enough.

"In the end it turned out that Magnussen didn't actually have any real proof of anything, all the information was only in his head." John continued. "That was enough, though, with him owning the media and all that. He got to publish whatever he wanted. Most people were too afraid to stand up to him, and the one time someone tried... it didn't end well." He shook his head. "We had a plan when we went to Appledore, but it was all ruined when we realized there were no vaults or anything like that. And then... well, Sherlock did what he did."

"Cannot say I'm surprised." Romanoff admitted, settling against Barton's legs. "There was a hit out for that man, some people wanted me to take it... by then I was already with SHIELD. Though I have to admit that after learning some of the things he'd done I came quite close to crossing him off anyway on principle alone."

"If I'd been on the same state of mind as I was back when I worked with MI6 I would have handled it myself." John revealed with no hesitation. "However, back then I kept trying to get what I considered a normal life. And I'd spent years following Sherlock... I wasn't prepared for that kind of game-changer, or how Sherlock reacted to it."

Hard as it was to admit that, it was nonetheless the truth.

"You killed Magnussen and what? They offered you a service-for-prison deal?" Barton guessed.

"Something like that." Sherlock nodded. "MI6 had already wanted me on that mission, but I'd turned it down... it being a suicide mission and all that. After I killed Magnussen the mission was offered again, this time as an alternative to a life-sentence in prison..." He made a pause before admitting. "I would have never survived in prison."

For a little while no one said a word, everyone seemed to be busy processing everything that had been revealed thus far.

"None of that explains how you all met." Rogers commented abruptly.

"We all met in Afghanistan." Tony answered like that should be all the answer needed, it wasn't.

"Why would you have been in the Middle-East?" The Captain inquired, confused. "And how did Holmes end up there?"

"Just what were you told about me before we met?" Tony asked suddenly.

"Agent Coulson compiled the dossiers for each candidate for the Avengers Initiative." Fury stated in a blank tone. "Yours included everything SHIELD had on you, of course."

It had been a loaded question, and for it an even more loaded answer... because there were things Tony was sure Coulson... Phil had found out, especially in the aftermath of the whole palladium-poisoning-situation, which Tony would have never allowed SHIELD as a whole to know... and apparently they didn't. But if he said any of that it would reveal that Phil might keep some things from the organization, and that probably wasn't a good idea.

"Only the cliff-notes version then." The millionaire declared in a perfectly emotionless tone. "Then, little kids, hang on because this is going to be a wild ride."

He smiled a predator's smile. He knew it was probably going to hurt, he'd never liked talking about Afghanistan after all, never had except to those he fully trusted like Pepper, Sherlock and John; even Happy and Rhodey knew very little compared to everything that had happened. But if he was going to be part of a team, they probably needed to know.

So the story was told, with Tony handling most of it, Sherlock and at some point John stepping in to add their parts. They spoke about the Jericho missiles, the attack on the convoy, even the car battery that had originally been placed in Tony's chest... Yinsen. The horror was absolute. Most didn't want to believe what was being said, but they knew the emotion in the millionaire's eyes was too raw for it all not to be true (Hill and Fury had been warned, quite explicitly, what would happen if anything of what Tony was revealing made it into any of SHIELD's databases).

There had apparently been some connection between the terrorist cell in Eastern Europe and the Ten Rings; enough at least that when the idea of a mole came up, said mole was sent on to their main base to be 'interrogated', after the attempts of the first couple of days in Europe failed. It all changed once in Afghanistan, when news arrived that MI6 had stormed the smaller hideout and pretty much blown the place up, some had intended to kill Sherlock and make him an example, until Tony convinced them that he needed Sherlock as his assistant, for his steady hands and how fast he picked up things (the men also suspected that, seeing how fast Sherlock picked things up, the Ten Rings might have begun to plan on some day using that to their advantage).

Tragedy had still taken place, and it was not easy for either survivor to talk about it. Especially when it came to Yinsen sacrificing his life so the two of them would live.

Several people couldn't help but think how grossly they'd misjudged Tony Stark, and the Scotts too, but the millionaire the most. How much they'd let themselves be lead by critics and hearsay, rather than try to get to know the man. Captain Rogers and Agent Romanoff were particularly guilty of that fault. The redhead with her report of 'textbook narcissism' and her 'Iron Man yes, Tony Stark not recommended'; it was taking that story to understand how much the two were truly the same. And Captain Rogers: 'I've known men with none of that worth ten of you'... he'd come to realize during the battle that he'd been wrong, but only as he heard the recount of Afghanistan he came to see just how much.

Yinsen's death was followed by the blowing up of the Ten Rings' camp and the escape. While only Tony had had a suit, Sherlock had worn the work-clothes modified just enough to grant him some protection, and with a built in harness that helped Tony get both of them out of there when they would have been over-run by terrorists... even if that meant they couldn't get too far away and ended having to walk through the dessert for too long until eventually found by a military team in a helicopter, commanded by Rhodey.

John explained about the hospital. Finally clarifying for SHIELD why exactly he was the only doctor Stark let anywhere close. Though the fact that after such traumatic experiences the man was willing to let an unknown close simply because of stories a fellow captive had shared with him was no less surprising.

They ended the story with a recount of John's resignation to the volunteer group, their trip back to the US and their establishing their new identities.

Silence reigned for almost a full minute, until Pepper broke it:

"There's one thing I still don't understand." The CEO stated thoughtfully. "Everything you've said, none of that explains how Lord Holmes didn't find them before."

"We didn't even know John was in America." Anna clarified. "The last either of us knew he'd gone back to Afghanistan to work as a volunteer and then simply disappeared."

For a few seconds no one seemed to have an explanation to that, until:

"Yeah, that might be kinda my fault." Tony blurted out sheepishly.

"Tony...?" Several voices asked at the same time.

"Remember how I said my girl was a genius?" He offered.

Everyone knew that by 'his girl' he wasn't talking about Pepper, she was his Pepper, his love, his only, his fiancé... never something as 'mundane' as his girl. No, with that expression he was talking about the young hacker he considered almost a protege and had been financing on and off in exchange of some odd jobs for years.

"She didn't just help me arrange everything for your new identities." Tony admitted. "She also made sure to erase any record of John's entry into the country, as well as everything about our stay those few days in the hospital in Kandahar. There were, of course, older recordings of the time John worked there as a volunteer; but nothing from the day we were found on."

"Does anyone else know you did that?" Hill asked, brow arched.

"Rhodey." Tony nodded. "He thought I was simply being paranoid, which wasn't that much of a leap, really. And after O...Stane..."

"Stane?" Rogers questioned. "Obadiah Stane? I think I read about him. He was the CEO of Stark Industries, right? Your tutor? Died tragically a few years ago, something about a small plane."

Sherlock, John and even Pepper scoffed in unison at that.

"Obadiah Stane is a bastard, a cold-blooded murderer and a goddamned traitor." Pepper's choice of words were enough to stun everyone.

"If he hadn't been already dead when I arrived I swear I'd have killed him." John added.

John had planned a little date with Sherlock that day; and Tony convinced them it'd be alright, he could handle things for one day (he wasn't planning on confronting Obadiah until he'd gone through the proof Pepper had gone for... of course, that hadn't gone exactly to plan). The couple had never again gone anywhere if there was the slightest reason to suspect danger.

"I don't understand." Rogers admitted quietly.

"Stane was dealing under the table." Sherlock stated coldly. "Had been doing it for years. Selling Stark weapons to the best buyer... which many times were the worst kind of terrorists."

"Don't tell me..." Barton groaned. "The Ten Rings."

"Of course." John replied coldly. "And, as if weapons alone weren't enough, Stane paid them to kill Tony. Not that things went according to plan."

"JARVIS." No one was expecting what Tony said next. "Bring up the ransom video of the coded file we have for Stane's deals."

"Tony...?" Pepper sounded so terrified everyone else couldn't help but tense.

It was worse than any of them could have imagined. The video showed several members of the Ten-Rings, a bloody and badly hurt Tony Stark with dirty bandages and wires on his chest, looking so unlike himself... if the story hadn't been enough to bring the point home about just how wrong they all had been about Tony, that certainly did.

"Stane did that?!" Romanoff's voice seemed to mix disbelief and honest anger.

"He did worse." Sherlock hissed. "He wanted Tony dead. But when he survived and came back with the arc-reactor, Stane decided he wanted it, and when Tony wouldn't cooperate, he took it by force. If it hadn't been for Rhodey and Pepper, Tony would have died that night."

"And where were you?" Hill asked, curious.

"There were out for personal reasons." Tony stated in an almost chiding tone. "It's not like we knew Stane would make a move that soon."

"If he did that, then why...? I don't understand..." Rogers admitted.

"Why the cover-up?" John finished for him. "It was SHIELD's idea. They were so focused on keeping the truth hidden, as always. So they created an alibi for Tony and Pepper, Sherlock and I didn't really need one, and then made something up to explain Stane's death."

"And then Stark had to go and do the stupid thing with his whole I am Iron Man..." Fury snapped.

"Don't speak about that which you do not understand, Fury." Sherlock practically snarled at the Director. "Tony and I spent three months in a cave in Afghanistan, with no control. Stane did the same and almost got him killed... and then you went an attempted to do it a third time. Like Tony is a child who cannot be allowed to make his own decisions. He wanted control of his life again, and he took it back the only way he could, by stepping into the light."

No one knew what to say to that.

"Of course you still went ahead with your cover-up for Stane's death." John added, in the same tone. "All you managed was to force him to deal with dozens, possibly hundreds of people all around him offering his 'most sincere condolences' for the loss of his friend, his godfather, his second father!" He was practically yelling by that part. "Tony couldn't move on from what that bastard did to him, you didn't let him!"

"Why didn't he say the truth about that, if he had already said it about himself?" Hill asked.

Tony mumbled something under his breath, but no one really heard him clearly.

"He didn't want to make things harder for Phil." Pepper was the one to explain. "He was our liaison with SHIELD and, for whatever the reason, he was the one having to deal with Tony's revelation about being Iron Man. Tony didn't want him to get in trouble or something, or simply even more tired by having to deal with yet another thing."

No one knew what to say to that. On one hand, SHIELD had hurt Tony terribly, on the other, Tony had chosen to deal with it, rather than make things harder for Phil... yet another way he'd shown he cared, another way no one seemed to have seen.

Silence lasted for a long time. Tony had already made a decision he wouldn't be telling anything else, certainly not about the episode with the palladium-poisoning. He'd already revealed more than he ever intended to; however, since he'd done it for the two men he considered as good as his brothers (even more so than Rhodey now), he didn't regret it.

"So, now what?" Thor asked eventually.

He'd stayed quiet through the whole exchange, first because he was aware of his own ignorance regarding many things, later on out of respect for everyone involved. However, he knew things still needed to be settled. And thought it was better if it happened sooner rather than later.

"Now we find out what Mycroft's intentions in coming here were." John declared.

"Just know that if you try to send him to prison or another of your suicide missions I will make you, and everyone else involved, regret it." Tony stated, dead serious.

No one had any doubt about it; Stark Industries might no longer build weapons, but that didn't mean Tony Stark was any less capable of 'dealing' with his enemies... he'd only gotten better at it since Iron Man.

"I..." Mycroft actually had to stop and swallow before speaking. "I came here to see what had become of my brother before truly making my mind."

"And have you?" Pepper pressed.

"I have." Mycroft nodded. "Sherlock Holmes has long since been considered dead. John Watson was declared officially missing several years ago, and in a few more, he will be declared dead. That's how things will be. It is quite clear to me that William and Johnathan Scott are much happier than Sherlock Holmes and John Watson ever were."

It was quite clear to him. It was in every article, picture and video Anna had gotten for him and which he'd looked through on the flight to New York. Many of them had been posed for, or taken at a variety of events. But there were a few, especially among the photos, that were obvious candid shots: like one of them in a corner of a coffee-shop, drinking tea and holding hands above the table; the two of them walking out of some party, ties loosened, jackets off, half hanging upon each-other and laughing uncontrollably; the two of them stepping out of some unknown office, holding hands; the two dancing together slowly late at night at some function, after the important part was finished... Yes, Liam and John Scott were definitely much happier than Sherlock Holmes and John Watson ever were or could have been.

* * *

So, what do you think? I really hope you enjoyed.

Next week a crossover that isn't quite one (which means you don't need to worry what its with as you don't need to know anything beyond Sherlock to understand it). That will also be the last crossover in this series... we're reaching the final leg of this journey! (I've officially finished writing this series, with fifteen pieces, this being the only one with two parts).

See ya!


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